It finally feels like Spring! And what better way to enjoy and learn about Spring than by exploring nature, insects and the growth that Spring brings. We have been really excited to seen green growing everywhere! For the past two weeks the kids have been pointing out any bit of green they see.
 
We were able to go on our first jacket-less adventures! We have spent a lot of time enjoying being outside in the sunshine. We have been lucky enough to go out at least two times per day, sometimes more depending on which of our activities we can take outdoors. We love to run around large green spaces being noisy, climbing on big rocks, and looking at the clouds and birds in the sky. And of course, we cannot forget the picnics! We also practiced our left, right and straight directions while going on our walks. They took turns deciding which direction to go. It turned out to be a lot of fun!
 
On one of our trips to NoseHill Park we came across some insects that were hiding beneath the rocks and came scurrying out. We talked about where different types of bugs live, what they eat, why they were “running” away or staying perfectly still when we came really close.
 
The kids and I also baked muffins and painted with puffy paint.
 
We spent some time practicing our letters this week; identifying and matching them, as well as building our names with them. The kids really enjoy building things, so this has been the way they have been learning to make their letters, numbers and shapes. The kids also identified the lowercase versions of the letters on their cards and coloured them. I cannot forget to mention how good they are getting at singing the alphabet nice and clear for all to hear!

Happy Earth Week! Earth Day was on Wednesday.
 
Through songs, stories and personal experiences, we learned about the sorts of things that help the Earth and those that are not good for the Earth.
 
We made Earth Day Oobleck, which is a Non-Newtonian substance. Non-Newtonian substances are fun to play with because they are both a liquid and a solid. I definitely saw some puzzled looks as they tried to pick it up in its solid type state, only to have it seemingly melt in their hands.
 
We spent a couple of days finding bits of nature on the ground from surrounding green spaces to make nature sculptures, which all turned out pretty neat. The kids were pretty excited about scavenging for pinecones, leaves, long grasses, etc. I think we ended up with 20 times the amount we needed! This was a great time to talk about what we can and shouldn’t take from nature.
 
We continue to go on adventures throughout the community. With Calgary Spring comes puddles, mud, ice and snow, all at the same time! This makes for some great outdoor play. Also, all the birds are out so we have been spending time spotting them and figuring out what type of bird they are. We were lucky enough to have a woodpecker only a metre or so from us before it flew to the tree.
 
We were finally able to have a picnic snack, so naturally we had to bake muffins for the occasion. The also brought their books out and we laid on our backs looking for pictures in the clouds.
 
Our letters this week were M and N. We used our Big Lines and our letter construction kit to practice building these letters.

I hope everyone had a good “physically distanced” Easter and were able to virtually see or hear from their loved ones. Things have definitely been a little different here at Blooming Butterflies lately; we are missing many of our friends, we cannot go to places we normally would and although we are able to say “hi” to others we widely pass, it is not quite the same. The few little ones here are doing a good job trying to understand and follow the new rules around what is considered safe for us in our current situation. This is not easy adults and children alike. We are staying as positive as we can, knowing that this will not last forever.
 
On a happier note! The Easter Bunny also came to Blooming Butterflies! The kids were so excited to see a little homemade bunny stuffy and chocolates waiting for them. 
 
We also did a few more Easter crafts this week, including the use of a cardboard tube to stamp paint to make bunnies, made paper chicks that “hatched” out of a paper egg, made a little bunny face and made Easter colour patterns.
 
Our letters this week were K and A. We spent multiple days hunting for Easter eggs that had mystery letters in them. The kids would find an egg, run it back to me and tell me what it was called. It was a fun way to practice letter identification.
 
How many people can say that they go sledding in mid-April?! We sure can! The kids and I are taking advantage of the snow while it’s still here, but we are also hoping that more Spring like weather will stay so we can have picnics.
 
We also spent a couple of days exploring NoseHill Park. We did a lot of playing in the mud and explored water displacement with the little stream that was running down the hill. We also played "musical instruments" of various sorts using dead branches. We came up with Cellos, Violins and Drums. We even explored the variation in sounds that come from whacking differently sized trees.

Happy Easter!
I hope that everyone is staying safe and healthy. I have been fortunate to have 3 little ones remain with me at this uncertain time. It has been great to have them here!
 
This week was full of adventures, as we cannot visit the playgrounds. We are so fortunate to have a big field and the ravine right next to us. The kids had a great time climbing and exploring there, and the weather was great for learning how to test ice to see if it will be safe to step on. 
 
We also made it up to the top of a less populated hill at NoseHill Park, where we watched and listened to a variety of birds. The kids and I found dead branches to build a tipi, that was once there last summer. What great teamwork and building! On the end of this adventure we found a little stone egg that was part of a community Easter Egg Hunt!
 
Toward the end of the week we went on a walking adventure to parts of the community we do not frequent, only to find the biggest ice puddle we have ever seen!
 
We all had fun decorating and making crafts for Easter! The kids put together a paper bunny where they practiced writing their names, they painted paper Easter eggs with a paintbrush and painted other paper eggs by rolling marbles around their paint tray.
 
The kids practiced making colour patterns with eggs they hunted for, they worked on their fine motor skills by picking up and sorting little coloured blocks with what they call "clippers", and they counted and matched cards with bunny numbers and egg quantities. 
 
Our letters this week were B and R. They practiced building these letters using our magnet pieces.

This week's post is a short one. For the first couple of days this week we spent a lot of time outdoors in open spaces. We went sledding and explored NoseHIll. You can tell when it's been a good day....everyone comes back muddy from head to toe! We also introduced our new little one to Mat Man.

I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy at home!
​
See everyone again soon!

I hope all families are doing their best to stay healthy through these uncertain times. I know here at Blooming Butterflies we are as lively as usual. We have talked about COVID-19 as being a sickness that is going around that many people are catching and there are ways we can help to not get us or others sick. The kids have been doing well with hand washing and covering sneezes and coughs, and making sure to not touch their faces as much as possible. I always know when handwashing is happening because I can hear them singing Happy Birthday, or similar songs, at the top of their lungs. Many of the children enjoy singing and I think they think it’s fun when we can hear them from the other side of the house and start singing with them. 
 
Like I said, we are going through our days are normally as possible. It was recently St. Patrick’s Day and the kids were super excited that the Leprechaun came to put gold coins at the end of their huge rainbow. They spent a bit of last week and a couple of hours on Monday painting and decorating it so it would be ready for the Leprechaun to see. On St. Patrick’s Day we drank "Leprechaun juice", decorated paper Shamrocks and counted and grouped gold coins.
 
Throughout the week the kids also sorted rainbow coloured blocks, worked on their fine motor skills by picking up rainbow blocks and placing them on the grey squares on cards, put beads on pipe cleaners that corresponded represented the number on their rainbow cards, and did some rainbow blow painting with straws.
 
The kids are really into mazes of varying types; building pathways in the snow, constructing kid sided block mazes to walk through to get to the other side, using their fingers to find their way out of paper mazes and tracing dotted lines to take snowballs to the snowman at the bottom of the page. 
 
Our letters this week were J and D. The didgeridoo was a very interesting D word to us. We listening to what it can sound like when it is being played, in a traditional way and in a modern sense.
 
Some other activities we did this week include baking, yoga, and playing with play dough. And we cannot forget that we celebrated a very happy 3rd birthday!

​We were very excited to invite a new friend to join our cohort this week. Everyone has helped to make her feel welcome and included in all that we do. They have done anything from asking her to play and showing her all the toys and supplies, to helping her set her spot at the table for meal times and singing her songs when she is feeling down. This is what preschool is all about!
 
As St. Patrick’s Day draws near, we have been talking about rainbows, leprechauns and pots of gold. This offers the perfect opportunity to review our colours, and some fancy colours such as gold and silver. Some of us are even learning about what letter each colour starts with. Our colour wall is definitely helpful in sparking these conversations. It is wonderful to see the increased interest, as the year progresses, in letter learning as it associates to things that are relevant to the kids at the time. Our letters this week were G and S. The letter S was really exciting for some as it is the letter that their names begin with.
 
With a little bit of science and art mixed together, we stirred up ingredients to make many colours of puffy paint that were then used to create some rainbow colours artworks. The kids started making their big rainbow for the leprechaun to find. The little leprechaun may leave a special surprise at the end of the rainbow if he can find it!
 
The kids did St.Patrick’s Day number puzzles, where they had to count the amount of images and find the corresponding number. This kids also flexed their hand muscles by using clothespins to clip over the correct number of images on the card.
 
Other activities we took part in this week include playing with play dough, building with Legos, and shoveling the neighbour’s sidewalk to lend a helping hand.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!
 
We sure are enjoyed our Dr. Seuss books this week! The kids were quite the bunch of little readers!
 
We focused on a few of Dr. Seuss’ books, but enjoyed MANY more as well.
 
You can’t have Dr. Seuss week without The Cat in The Hat! The kids practiced their number identification and sequencing on Cat’s Hat, drew Cat in The Hat patterns in their journals, and painted Thing One and Thing Two portraits. They did a great job writing their names on their portraits too!
 
We read What Was I Scared Of? This is a wonderful book about being afraid of the unknown (in this case the animated pants with no wearer) and shows how a little understanding and acceptance of one’s differences can allow new friendships to form. The kids cut out paper pants and with a little guidance wrote what they were scared of.
 
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish is a great rhyming story with some great moments for colour recognition as well. The kids played a One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish game where they rolled the dice, read the number and put the corresponding amount of fish in the bowl. They also made paper fish to go along with the story.
 
Go Dog Go, by PD Eastman, was another book we focused on. It is often associated with Dr. Seuss. This book is great for learning opposites, colours, and rhyming of course. We played a musical rhyming game to the tune of The Farmer in The Dell and made cardboard tube cars.
 
Additional favourites that were read multiple times this week:
Fox in Socks
Wacky Wednesday
Green Eggs and Ham
Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?
Hop On Pop
Yertle The Turtle
 
Our letters this week were O and Q. We learned that O is a vowel, so it has two sounds. We definitely learned some new letter Q words that we had not heard of before.

This week we spent a descent amount of time outdoors, as the weather has been wonderful! We’ve been building snowmen, digging out snow to make ‘houses’, making trails in the snow, rolling down the hills, climbing the trees, boot skating on the ice, and visiting the little libraries in the neighbourhood.
 
We all made a drawing using oil pastels and then applied watercolour paints on top. To help us make sense of why the watercolour paint does not cover up our oil pastel drawings, we did a mini science experiment with water and oil to show how oil and water never mix and that oil will always go to the top.
 
The kids built people and monsters with play dough, buttons and sticks. They turned it into a two hour creative pretend play session. I love seeing them delve deep into their pretend play when they are all contributing and having a positive experience.
 
Our letters this week were U and C. Last week we started playing a letter hunt and say game, of which we continued this week. The kids seem to really like it. Magic C Bunny also made an appearance, as his favourite letter is the letter C. He loves to dance to letter C songs and loves to hear what C words the kids have to tell him. We talked about what C sounds like, and then also what it sounds like when it has its neighbour H beside it. Two of the kids start with C; one with the C sound and one with the CH sound, so they were quite interested.
 
We also had some free journaling time, did a directed drawing of Magic C Bunny and baked oatmeal cookies.

This week we did an Artist Study on Wassily Kandinsky.
 
We experimented with new materials this week, as a part of learning about Kandinsky’s art. The kids made their own version of Kandinsky's "Squares with Concentric Circles", using oil pastels. On another day they used Conte (somewhat like a cross between crayon and charcoal) to experiment making different types of lines. 
 
Kandinsky also liked to use shapes in his artwork, so that was a great opportunity to continue our learning of shapes. Using a transparency on top of an original drawing, the kids glued on various foam shapes and lines. Some experimented with overlapping as well.
 
Throughout the week we have been learning how Kandinsky could ‘hear’ colours (Synesthesia) and how music can make us feel a certain way and colours can also make us feel a particular way. The kids practiced painting the colours and forms that the music made them feel, as opposed to painted something they had preplanned in their minds. We listened to Mozart, Jazz and Electronic. Just letting yourself paint what the music is dictating is not an easy task when you are so used to creating something you have already thought about. I think they did great for their first time ever doing something like this. I can see the difference in some of the paintings as they change from various types of music. It was very interesting to watch them as they painted. As much as it is an experience for the children, I think it is an amazing experience for the adult watching them! It is almost as if you can see what is going through their minds as they listen to each type of music.
 
Our letters this week were T and I. The kids used stickers to form a letter T. We also played a letter game where each person was on the hunt of particular letters that were placed on the floors throughout the house. To make their task more interesting they had to do different actions as they ran back to me, to tell me the name of the letter they brought back.